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Double Bass New from Acoustic Image at NAMM

tombowlus

tombowlus

If it sounds good, it is good
Gold Supporting Member
Apr 3, 2003
35,515
19,942
North central Ohio
www.bassgearmag.com
Disclosures
Editor-in-Chief, Bass Gear Magazine
#1
I'm not sure if any of you made it out to the NAMM Show, and even if you did, I'm not sure how many of you were able to find the Acoustic Image stuff (hidden away, as it was, in a "pedal booth").

But Vic and I were able to meet with Rick Jones from AI and check out their new Flex preamp/powered cab. This is one of the most exciting things we saw at NAMM. In fact, it won a Bass Gear Magazine Best of Show Award!

Basically, they have taken the two-channel AI front end, and made it into a remote preamp (which can be connected to the powered enclosure via a standard Cat-5 cable. This remote preamp has all the front end features you've come to love, and has a ton of outputs, loops, etc. It can be fully stereo, or dual-mono. It has four bands of EQ (they used to have three), and it has a different set of effects. All in all, the preamp alone is super cool. It should retail for around $400, and they even have a mic stand mounting kit!

The powered enclosure has two 10" drivers and the AI tweeter. Each driver gets its own 300-watt amp, as does the tweeter (50w). Yup, tri-amped! Rick says it is super quiet - more so than previous AI products, which is amazing.

The preamp can be held in place magnetically on top of the powered cab. Very cool!

They are a few months out for the final production models, but I'm super excited about this. I can see a lot of guys going for the preamp only.

Great stuff! Here are some pics:

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#3
In traditional AI form, the second 10" driver is downward-facing. On the back of the powered cab are additional controls for variable high-pass filtering on the downward-firing woofer, only (there is a global VHPF on the preamp) and a -6dB switch for the bottom 10.

This setup will offer a lot of control, that's for sure.
 
#4
tombowlus said:
In traditional AI form, the second 10" driver is downward-facing. On the back of the powered cab are additional controls for variable high-pass filtering on the downward-firing woofer, only (there is a global VHPF on the preamp) and a -6dB switch for the bottom 10.

This setup will offer a lot of control, that's for sure.
Click to expand...

yes, that's quite a setup. Seems like the powered cab concept is on the rise, not just with AI. That's one powerful rig for its size. I'm sure it sounds great.
 
#7
I' ve been waiting for this to happen! Not only the Headway preamp owners will come to like this, but also the Vintage Revolution preamp owners (like myself) or the Schertler Yellow Blender owners, etc, ...

Finally an enclosure that is suited for us, double bassists, that is portable and self-powered, but not overpowered such as the Bergantino IP112 (which was in fact too good to be true!). I like the idea of sitting somewhat remote of the cab, so as to hear myself even better and to avoid feedback.
 
#8
Yeah, the cool thing is, this makes sense as an AI system, it makes sense as an AI front end into another rig, and it makes sense as a clean amplification rig (with special features that are well-suited to double bass amplification) for another front end.

:cool:
 
#9
Nathan Levine said:
Headway users rejoice!
Click to expand...

Nathan,
I hadn't thought of using the Ten2, but now it has a integrated power amp, that's definitely an option. Recently, there was someone selling a Focus SA on the threads, but I only saw it once, and then it disappeared. He lived in Denmark, so shipping would have been rather expensive and returning it should one have to do that would also cost quite a few bucks. I did consider it though.

Ric
 
#12
In my case (and I assume it's somewhat common) I don't use an amp a lot more than I do, often running straight into FOH reinforcement only. So the idea of having a versatile preamp is way more important and it makes having a versatile amp (read expensive) kinda redundant. Especially if it's only a bass amp. Pretty much anyone who's running a decent Preamp with their pickup/mic of choice really only needs a powered speaker for their amp situations anyway. Lately I've been looking at something like the JBL EON15xt as a high fidelity amp/PA/swiss army knife type solution but this ten2 might be pretty cool if it's real.
-Jeff
 
#13
Ric Vice said:
Jeff,
Well a Ten2 EX with no power amps is $709.00, so you have to figure that it's going to cost close to $1,000.00. Of course they could surprise me and come in at a lower price point.

Ric
Click to expand...

I think Rick said something like $1,350 list. Not positive, though.
 
#16
Greg Clinkingbeard said:
Back to the 4 band EQ. Curious to know the EQ points. Also noticed the separate inputs rather than combo jacks.
Click to expand...

+1
I've tried the Series II and III Heads and with my bass, I couldn't get the EQ to emphasize the frequency ranges I like to work with. With the new preamp voicing, you will be able to cut and boost the upper and lower midrange. That's a crucial part of the DB tonal spectrum. I like the idea of separate power amps in the cabinet, and the detachable pre amp. This new design could be a winner. I noticed that they have also moved the Phantom up to 48 volts, that's another plus.

Ric
 
#17
Ric Vice said:
+1
I've tried the Series II and III Heads and with my bass, I couldn't get the EQ to emphasize the frequency ranges I like to work with. With the new preamp voicing, you will be able to cut and boost the upper and lower midrange. That's a crucial part of the DB tonal spectrum.
Click to expand...

I think it is safe to say that this is why some of us have liked the Headway EQ voicing so much more than what is on the AI amps. The Headway seems to have a clarity that you can dial in easily that just seems to elude me with the AI pre. It is very very subtle. But it is still there nonetheless.

[/QUOTE]I noticed that they have also moved the Phantom up to 48 volts, that's another plus.[/QUOTE]

Is the phantom power on the AI amps not 48volts? I'm pretty sure it is. Could be wrong though.
 
#18
In some ways the "notch filter" on the now older series of AI amps act as a 4th EQ (low mid) that was cut only.

About the new product, what surprises me is that this control panel connects to the Amp/speaker via ethernet cable. Odd no? Anyways, it's great as one can run very long cable lengths, and maybe even have some option of wifi control later on. But it does open up the possibility that the front panel is only compatible with the AI amp/speaker combo. Ditto if the amp/speaker only has an RJ45 input. Some photos of the back sides of both the panel and floor box would be nice.
 
#20
GrowlerBox said:
38V AFAIK.
Click to expand...

By the look of the manuals, 38v is for S2 and perhaps older. but "47v" is listed for S3 and higher.

Though the PDF for the S3 amps show different specs than what is written on my amp itself. So there may be typos.

I always thought that to have something labelled as being able to give "phantom power" to mics and other devices meant it was always 48v. Are there mics and other devices out there thriving on 38v phantom power?
 

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